in light of the fact that the new uk govt has put an end to the war in gaza, i can confirm that i was wrong about the supposed irrelevance of your green party vote

I mean i know you keep saying this and i believe you are fully in good faith to claim this , but using the normal definition of populism you guys typically use (say AFD in germany is populist, movimento 5 stelle in italy, Le Pen in france and so on), populism systematically is stronger (ie , they get more votes) in places where houses cost *less* than the national average.

AFD is stronger in eastern germany, Le pen is stronger in rural areas, movimento 5 stelle is stronger in souther italy and so on.

Ofc housing is a hell of a problem in UK right now btw, i am not claiming it isn't, i am just claiming politics isn't monovariate and you should find the justifications for populism elsewhere completly, even if housing is a big problem which would be nice to solve regardless of it's (lack of) implications regarding populism.

Not remotely suggesting politcs is monovariate

rayner said something about a big social housing drive in a speech today

i've read opinion pieces from people who know a thing or two about putting bricks on top of each other. they said that the target of 1.5m homes over the parliament is basically unachievable without some massive push. which is quite worrying as i dont think 1.5m in 5 years really touches the sides of the problem.

It was this that says you dont think we're irrelevent

You're saying they make decisions based on us (silly description of us aside).

That makes us relevant.

my point is that it's an empty gesture b/c israel has plenty of weapons suppliers online, and that the only upshot is that it makes you and people like you feel good

i think that if iran and its playthings were about to achieve their stated aim of the destruction of israel and the forced deportation and/or extermination of its jewish inhabitants, then labour would be sending whatever weapons required to prevent it

Ending the financial support for a war run by a state governed by genocidally psychotic racist gangster criminals hellbent on a Holodomor doesn't need any extra benefits to make it worthwhile.

We're not going to disagree about the uk's influence on this being almost entirely minimal

If it helps, nothing about this makes me feel good. I dont want up supporting netanyahu actions (which you know my views on)

This shat started with egregious Blairite cronyism, was amplified by Johnson's amoral corruption and now here we are and it's all completely normal

the UK has significant influence but the cited actions (not selling some stuff anymore) don't matter much.

what labour decides to do wrt ICC rulings will be very important and influential though, Tories were contesting jurisdiction, labour seems to be accepting ICC rulings without contesting them, we'll see soon enough

Started reading this report after seeing a few accounts on twitter I follow posting it. It's well worth a read and covers many of the problems that we have in terms of productivity, housing, infrastructure etc.

It would be good to have some discussion on it.

https://ukfoundations.co/

Not enough information - the number of homes needed in each country may be quite different.

Average household size is indeed higher in the UK at 2.36 vs 2.18 for France.

Then ofc you have the "houses in the middle of nowhere" (that happens in every country) which shouldn't be counted at all, which is why in general going with "total houses in a country" is kinda silly.

Seems like right wing claptrap. Lots of guff about building more toll roads. twitter account is fond of quoting Nick Timothy lol.

What are your solutions?

We need to build more houses. That is undeniable.

what's the objection in the UK about building in height? you aren't as car centric as the USA right, so lack of parking spots/traffic aren't the main concern of higher density i suppose?

For countries, or areas of countries, that aren't super-car-centric it should be very easy to build in height just adding floors to existing already urbanized areas; starting with decommissioned industrial areas ofc, and unused office building conversion, but also a 3 story building can usually go to 5 or 6 without big problems, you aren't even a sismic country

Write off all of some of the massive debt that the government owes to itself and use some of the freed up borrowing headroom to build houses and repair the crumbling infrastructure (roads, schools), while employing more nursing staff, all of which would give a boost to the flatlining economy.

Some people like to make out that this is all hard because most political problems are difficult to solve (which they are); others like to pretend it's hard because they're financed by large corporations and billionaires; but this one is surprisingly straightforward.

If you want a solution to a huge mess caused by privately educated people who went to Oxford university, let's not ask people who went to Oxford.

IF with "debt owened to itself" you mean the portion that was bought by the BoE with QE, you can't write it off with 0 effects.

That debt has a mirror image in bank reserves which are remunerated by the BoE, which is part of government. The interest government is nominally paying there goes to the banks, it's not "free debt" once interests are above 0.

Not sure that part was clear , i admit it's quite complicated.

Agree completely. Build houses, improve infrastructure, train those short-in-supply industries with grants not loans, make public transport actually viable and a good alternative to cars for any distance over a few miles. Austerity don't work, we all know that, and them saying it's not austerity they're imposing is clearly bullshit to even the dummies in the room.

They're so afraid of giving the ridiculously weakened Tory party ammo, right out the gate. They need some guts and actually try and improve life for most people, not act like timid mice.

They have no guts and no ideas and are on a huge ego trip. Reeves is a tribute act to the macho posturing of Thatcher and May and will probably be leader when Starmer is pensioned off to the donkey sanctuary in the not too distant future. All they care about is being the opposite of Corbyn while collecting as many freebies as they can while they can.

They are all appalling and deserve a good ****ing kicking.

The depressing as opposed to angry part is that it is all so predictable:

There's a reason governments don't write off their debts. Don't even think Corbyn was suggesting anything like this.

The reality is any solutions to our structural problems as a country, following decades of neglect, will require government and private investment.